Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you
try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people living
for today… John Lennon beckons the listener to join him, so the world will
live as one. His idealistic lyrics are revolutionary in suggesting the
abolishment of nationalism and religion. Such concepts would prevent a
future Holocaust by obliterating these devices of discrimination. This may
be an unrealistic proposal, like saying that utopia is possible. Yet, the
mind is the only entity complex enough to comprehend utopia, and every
ambition begins in the mind.

The
concept of world citizenship is such an attainable impossibility that it
challenges one just to consider it. Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t
hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for… One renowned peacemaker, Mahatma
Ghandi, has also suggested this prospect, "Some day we must extend the
national law to the universe, even as we have extended the family law to
form nations – a larger family" (Wood). In remembering the battle lines
drawn between nations during World War II, one sees the vicious roles
countries played in declining to defend the Jews. “Even though the Nazis
screened the death camps from the general population, Nazi brutalities
were overt and mass death was an ever-present reality” (Marrus, 101). This
betrayal of the Jews is especially evident in Eastern Europe, where Poles
and Czechs pleaded ignorance to the reality of Hitler’s actions. In a
world not segregated by national borders, there would be no Poland or
Czechoslovakia to turn-away persecuted refugees. A modern application of
this point would provide a solution to the Middle East crisis that has
taken thousands of lives over the last century. The struggle between
Israel and Palestine over land would be finalized if national borders
ceased to exist.

Religion is yet another device used to
categorize people. Though created with peaceful intentions, it spurs
conflict more than maintains equilibrium. No religion too, Imagine all the
people living life in peace… The Nazis believed in Aryan supremacy, which
was their logic behind ethnic cleansing. To Adolf Hitler, “Aryan” became
defined as one of German background who is blond-haired and blue-eyed.
This distinction explicitly labeled Jews as non-Aryan. Consequently,
religion provided a mechanism for the Nazis to detach from the Jews, and
also a loophole to perhaps escape the consequences of mass murder. Jewish
philosopher Emil L. Fackenheim relates this story which demonstrates
religion’s injustice. In 1961, Nazi SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann
was on trial for his life, accused of crimes against the Jews. He claimed
to be “just following orders” when he deported European Jews to
concentration camps. A Baptist missionary went to the trial in Jerusalem
to try to convert Eichmann. Journalists questioned the missionary as to
whether a last-minute conversion would permit Eichmann into heaven, and
the missionary replied yes. Then they asked if the Jews, who died
helplessly under his command, were in heaven. The missionary said no (Fackenheim
112). Our world is divided into close-minded religious groups, and the
Nazis exploited this division. Though theological groups are peaceful
internally, they clash when released into the jumble of society. Instead
of respecting differences in worship, they ultimately compete to prove the
impossible; that for which there is no evidence, only faith. The Nazis
persecuted the Jews for this difference of belief, and set out to destroy
them.

Even so, these future changes alone
cannot prevent another Holocaust. “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it,” warned philosopher George Santayana (Rogasky
180). Thus emphasis is pressed upon learning about the massacre of the
Jews, so as to assure, “Never Again.” Many monuments have been raised
worldwide to remember the abandonment of the Jews during World War II. One
prominent memorial sits tranquilly on Congress Street in Boston. Six
translucent columns glow eerily like beacons in the night. Stepping inside
the first, engraved “Sobibor” in the black granite base, one is engulfed
in a swirl of smoke rising from hot embers. A pane of glass is imprinted
with the echoes of survivors’ voices. “ ‘Ilse, a childhood friend of mine,
once found a raspberry in the camp and carried it in her pocket all day to
present to me that night on a leaf. Imagine a world in which your entire
possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend.’ – Gerda
Weissman Klein, Holocaust Survivor” (Leong). The surface of the four outer
glass walls is obscured with miniscule writing. Upon intimate examination,
one identifies the writing as an immeasurable list of seven digit numbers,
as if tattooed onto prisoners’ arms. The lines and loops of the numbers
seem to melt into bodies, each representing a single soul, stacked upon
one another. Eyes begin to drift upwards realizing that this is only the
first tier of numbered walls, and five more sections are built above to
model a smokestack. Head tilting back, the numbers bleed together. One is
no longer able to distinguish a single one of the six million Jews killed
in hatred. The effect is dizzying and one gasps for breath, choking on
smoke and tears, searching for solace in the square of black night that
hangs far out of reach above. Walking through the six smokestacks
representing each of the Nazi regime’s death camps, the experience is
hammered into one’s existence. The mind absorbs succinct blows of this
reality as it begins to reveal itself through sheer magnitude of numbers
and haunting testimonies of survivors. The quantity “six million” is
palpable in the ambience of the memorial.

A distinct pattern of persecution carves
into the history of the Jewish people. Today this sore remains exposed and
vulnerable to hate. Pesach, or Passover, is an annual Jewish remembrance
of the exodus from Egypt. Part of the celebration includes a ceremony
called the Seder, which tells the story of the Jews’ escape. One virtue of
Judaism mentioned in the Seder is the ability to accept each step in the
road to liberation as the entire liberation, then continue on to the next
one. It is recognized that such a task cannot be completed all at once;
patience and perseverance are ancient elements of Judaic life. The same
mindset could establish utopia in our world. It cannot happen all at once,
but in this lifetime significant progress can be made. You may say I’m a
dreamer, but I’m not the only one, I hope some day you’ll join us, And the
world will live as one.

Works Cited

Fackenheim, Emil L. What is Judaism? New York: Summit Books, 1987.

Lennon, John. “Imagine.” Imagine. EMD/CAPITOL,
1971.

Leong, Sze Tsung. The New England
Holocaust Memorial. Friends of the New England Holocaust Memorial. 12 Apr.
2002. <http://www.nehm.com/>.
Marrus, Michael R. The Holocaust in History. Hanover: University Press of
New England, 1987.